Monte Carlo processes for including Chandra instrument response uncertainties in parameter estimation studies
Abstract
Instrument response uncertainties are almost universally ignored in current astrophysical X-ray data analyses. Yet modern X-ray observatories, such as Chandra and XMM-Newton, frequently acquire data for which photon counting statistics are not the dominant source of error. Including allowance for performance uncertainties is, however, technically challenging in terms of both understanding and specifying the uncertainties themselves, and in employing them in data analysis. Here we describe Monte Carlo methods developed to include instrument performance uncertainties in typical model parameter estimation studies. These methods are used to estimate the limiting accuracy of Chandra for understanding typical X-ray source model parameters. The present study indicates that, for ACIS-S3 observations, the limiting accuracy is reached for ~ 10 4 counts.
- Publication:
-
Observatory Operations: Strategies, Processes, and Systems
- Pub Date:
- June 2006
- DOI:
- 10.1117/12.672226
- Bibcode:
- 2006SPIE.6270E..1ID